'They are most often more interested in certain genres and therefore certain styles of music which belong to those genres, but these two symphonic scores do not really belong to such a group and therefore don't get the attention they deserve which is a great pity.'

Hi Stefan, You're right, I think this is precisely the reason why the soundtracks for those films have gone under the radar somewhat. In fact, most of what you have written about your own experiences from these films as well as the music reflect mine. I would still say though that Cristo & Tre Fratelli, while highly respected, are not well known to most people these days. I don't doubt they have their place in film history -I adore both of them- but like you said, they don't fall into the types of genres that most people are attracted to these days.

At the current rate with which Piccioni's scores are being released, I'm pretty certain Cristo will be around soon. A 2 cd set with both complete scores would be even better. I think it's only a matter of time, anyway. I was also under the impression that Jason Piccioni, Piero's son, was responsible for many of the recent cd releases, making available many of his 'lost' scores taken from his father's personal archives. I'll bet both Cristo & Tre Fratelli are there amongst them...

@wayoutwest - Le Altre sounds great, thanks for that, I had never heard it before. Just that small clip reveals enough music to think that there is another great soundtrack hiding in there, waiting to be released...!

At the current rate with which Piccioni's scores are being released, I'm pretty certain Cristo will be around soon. A 2 cd set with both complete scores would be even better. I think it's only a matter of time, anyway. I was also under the impression that Jason Piccioni, Piero's son, was responsible for many of the recent cd releases, making available many of his 'lost' scores taken from his father's personal archives. I'll bet both Cristo & Tre Fratelli are there amongst them...

I am not so sure, because I am waiting for CRISTO and TRE FRATELLI for a long time now. I still have hopes for a release, but as everyone knows it will be no commercial success on CD, I am also skeptical. Yes, you are right, tapes for both scores are there in the Piccioni archives. I suppose that the original tapes for TRE FRATELLI might otherwise even be lost. On the other hand, Sugar/CAM should have the original ones for CRISTO. And as I had said, there is a lot of other music besides very nice and different arrangements of the wonderful main theme which Piccioni had written for CRISTO and which was not even used in the longer TV version. I would say that a very good 40 minute CD version of CRISTO would certainly be feasible without getting too repetitive.

I am with you guys in that I want to hear Piccioni's more serious stuff over the last ten years I can only imagine that his fan base has continued to double a number of times over as more people have discovered him thanks to places like YouTube etc... Where there are many tracks from the maestro just waiting to be discovered.

Which leads me to wonder what the overall core fan base of Piccioni want to see getting released yes it most certainly has been his groovy Lounge stuff which we all have enjoyed very much. Many of us have since discovered other sides to the maestro that we really want to hear.

The next Beat release is going to feature two more comedy scores Rag. Arturo De Fanti, bancario precario Riavanti... marsch! What the Hell is there any fan out there who had them on their list of most wanted titles very disappointing.

'The next Beat release is going to feature two more comedy scores Rag. Arturo De Fanti, bancario precario Riavanti... marsch! What the Hell is there any fan out there who had them on their list of most wanted titles very disappointing.'

I think Quartet Records also has a Piccioni release or two scheduled for some time this year. It was mentioned in another thread on this site. Digitmovies seems to release a Piccioni soundtrack every second month or so, I'm sure they will be releasing more of his music too.

As to whether they will ones we are hoping for, I have no idea. I don't know why, but I get the feeling that Lucky Luciano is going to be up for release soon, probably in an expanded version.

Think you might be getting mixed up with Verita Note who released ten of his scores in a fairly short space of time really hope we see the return of that label since 2003 Digit have released seven scores all very interesting the most recent being Alberto Sordi's comedy score some tracks you can skip over but there is a few gems on there that are highly pleasing. Get the feeling I have heard some of this music re used in a recent American film Lincoln Lawyer or maybe it was something else.

Would love to hear some more of his early 60's stuff like the jazz flavoured Gioventù di notte 1961 two tracks I have from this are very good somewhere between Adua E Le Compagne and Temptation Lucky Luciano would be a must have for anyone who has not already got it very enjoyable.

Personally, I would recommend 'dramatic" Piccioni to contrast what you already have, so that you could have a range of all types of scores PP had done.

After all, like the interview article above says, Piccioni scored upwards of 300 titles and should not only be known for comedies and "lounge".

However, I'll try to shape my recommendations to cater to what you want.

This title (an alternate English title = "First Surrender") surprised me very much when I bought it blind. Just the fact that it's from 1971 means it's automatic Piccioni purchase for me - my favorite Piccioni year! To my delight, portions of this one sound like a giallo - so this flick must be something more than its soundtrack cover indicates!

Next, SCACCO ALLA REGINA (which has already been mentioned above). The English alternate title is "Check To The Queen", so I'm assuming Rosanna Schiaffino is a queen with silver body paint.

REGINA is a "standard" Piccioni title - so iconic of Piccioni that several tracks of this album were incorporated into his 1976 score for QUELLE STRANE OCCASIONI. After REGINA if you haven't had your Piccioni fix, then I suggest SENZA VIA D'USCITA (1970), which appears to be a flick about fashion photography and models. You can get SENZA VIA D'USCITA as the "2nd bill" on the CIAO GULLIVER soundtrack:

CIAO GULLIVER itself sound like no other Piccioni - lots of Indian instruments, vocals, and Eastern scales.

Aim for the Devil's backbone, next! I realize you don't like Westerns, but this is one which doesn't sound at all as if it's in the late 1800s; Piccioni's organ keyboard anchors LA SPINA DORSALE DEL DIAVOLO in 1970!

Think I still prefer the old Japanese cover art above but at least the new one looks better than my ordinary Cam cd.

The amount of expanded Italian titles that they are putting out is crazy especially when there are so many unreleased scores.

wayoutwest, are you saying they should be focusing on getting those unreleased scores out before doing any further expanded versions? I'm sure it's slightly easier for them to do expanded versions over unreleased scores.The tapes are probably more accessible since they've already been used in a previous release.

By the way, I forwarded that youtube clip of Le Altre to the guys at Beat Records, suggesting they look into releasing the soundtrack. Their initial reaction was that they hadn't even heard of the film or the soundtrack (or perhaps I misinterpreted their email) but they said they would look into locating the score. Not that they will necessarily release it on their label next month, but if word gets around, & I'm certain there will be an interest in releasing it, someone is bound to do it, whether it's Beat, Digitmovies, Quartet,etc.

Guess there is no easy way bewlay I do love many of the expansions but it is a recession that most of us are going through and I am not even sure if my job is going to last much longer. Just seems that there is more and more expanded versions coming out all the time not that it is a bad thing we don't have to get them all. My main concern I guess is the whole limited edition thing there is just not enough copies made of many titles to go round many labels hope to sell their new titles out as quick as possible.

There is so many titles already out there which only grows larger as every month goes past so it might be awhile before you get around to many that may already have sold out by then I'm not sure how it works for the Italian labels releases. Are they even restricted by pressing limits and fees etc...? Similar to what the US labels have to do in order to get to be able to release a score. It is good to see Digit pressing more of some of their titles that are selling well like they must have just done with Tentacles.

What would be great to see is if they could keep more of them in print especially some of the classics like Femina Ridens , Il Disprezzo etc... That many collectors have missed out on.

Well done on sending over that Clip to Beat I really need to get over there and Join the Beat Forum to see if I can give them a few score suggestions to look for.

Some of Piccioni's scores should never go out of print like this master piece another one of my favourites.

I love this score too, wayoutwest. I have the japanese cd edition that came out about 10 years ago. Talking about expanded versions, I would only be too happy to have one of the labels do this with Swept Away. I don't know if you own this soundtrack, but have you noticed the differences in the music used in the film compared to what's on the cd & vinyl versions out there now? They're not the same at all.

For example, the 'main title' track on the cd I have(the exact same version as in the first youtube clip in your post) is quite different to what's heard over the opening titles in the film. They are close, but not identical. Different variations, outtakes or alternatives versions were used for the cd & vinyl releases, I don't know where they got them from, but you don't hear many of them in the film. I would love to get the actual film versions, as I much prefer them over the ones on the cd I have.

By the way, I forwarded that youtube clip of Le Altre to the guys at Beat Records, suggesting they look into releasing the soundtrack. Their initial reaction was that they hadn't even heard of the film or the soundtrack (or perhaps I misinterpreted their email) but they said they would look into locating the score. Not that they will necessarily release it on their label next month, but if word gets around, & I'm certain there will be an interest in releasing it, someone is bound to do it, whether it's Beat, Digitmovies, Quartet,etc.

Bewlay, what you should do is send an e-mail to Digitmovies, but not to Beat Records, because that makes not much sense. It is quite clear that Beat Records has not heard of this score at all, because Beat Records is mainly handling their own catalogue and the old Nazionalmusic, Sonorfilm etc. catalogues. However, LE ALTRE is owned by CAM and now by Sugar. GDM and Digitmovies do have the best contacts to that company, but not Beat. Therefore you can be sure that Beat will not release LE ALTRE in future, because it is a completely different Italian company. Either contact Digitmovies or GDM, although I don't think that GDM will do it. Certainly not, because GDM does the Morricone expansions, the Hillside releases which are mainly Spaghetti westerns or the old RCA (now Universal Music Publishing) catalogue - the later one now in cooperation with the Legend label under the heading GDM/Legend. So there is probably only Digitmovies which could release it. The same of course also goes for example for I DOLCI INGANNI or for CRISTO SI È FERMATO A EBOLI, also owned by Sugar/CAM. I can only urge all of you here on this board interested in any of these scores, please write to Digitmovies - that means to Luca Di Silverio and to Claudio Fuiano. Nobody else at the moment will be able to fuflill your dreams. The more people write to them, the better! Otherwise they can't really assess how many collectors would be interested in such a title.

Thanks Stefan, that's good to know...honestly, with regards to unreleased scores, I'm never quite sure who owns the rights to what soundtrack usually. Sometimes there are clear indications, but not always. I only mentioned Le Altre to the Beat Records guys because I had been talking with them about other soundtracks, & I decided to mention that one. I imagine the people who work at those Italian labels know each other & must discuss soundtrack releases all the time. And then there's Quartet & Saimel records, both based in Spain, who release Italian scores as well. Kronos Records has also started releasing Italian soundtracks, & they are based in Germany or Malta, I think. They all mostly seem to have Facebook pages too, & I've made some requests for soundtracks there...

After my Piero binge at the start of the year, I took the past couple of weeks off and was listening to other stuff. However, I gave "Lo Straniero" and "I Giovani Tigri" further spins this week and thoroughly enjoyed them again!

[Just checking in to say I haven't disappeared and I'm still enjoying the music!]

What would be great to see is if they could keep more of them in print especially some of the classics like Femina Ridens , Il Disprezzo etc... That many collectors have missed out on.

I wrote them about it a year ago, they replied that they were open to the idea, which is a good thing. Nothing's really happened yet but maybe a "massive" customer request for a given batch of titles could lead to something. I would follow you for Femina and Disprezzo. (I would add Streghe among others)

Regarding GDM and the galaxy of Italian companies, with the exception of Cometa, all labels (+ occasionally Quartet, FSM etc..) have in common to deal with Claudio Fuiano.